The Ashanti Regional Minster, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, has stated that Ghana is the fourth dirtiest country in Africa, and the second in West Africa.
He told a meeting of stakeholders and doctors in Kumasi recently that Ghana spends $290 million of its Gross Domestic Product, representing 1.6%, on sanitation issues, and said that the country needs US$1.5 billion to mitigate the looming menace.
The occasion was the 14th Annual Ghana Medical Association (GMA) public lectures, under the theme: �Sanitation in Ghana: Managing the crisis�. Dr. Sarpong revealed that the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council would embark on a clean-up exercise every month, and hoped this would go a long way to bring down the bad sanitation situation in the region.
He was of the view that then attitudinal change must be addressed, saying we need to educate the people to wash their hands with running water and soap. The Ashanti Regional Minister said sanitation issues are a collective responsibility, and all must help to spread the news about healthy and clean environments.
The Minster of Health, Dr. Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, indicated that sectoral planning was needed to mitigate the outbreak of diseases in Ghana. The newly-appointed Health Minister said sanitation was important to the health of the people, and that �we have a lot to do, as a country, in the health sector.�
The Health Minster said it was appalling to see garbage and stagnant water in gutters in urban areas, and stressed the need to set priority, strong leadership and sectoral policies in our health delivery as a nation. On the unbridled plastic waste scourge on our streets, he noted that there was the need to have tighter controls on the use of plastics in the Ghanaian society.
He stressed the need for a sectional approach to combating the devastating Ebola endemic, which the Ministry of Health is ready and closely monitoring with an effective strategy. Dr. Agyemeng-Mensah said long term strategies will help Ghana to achieve its goals, ending, �the task ahead is enormous.�
The GMA President, Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, who chaired the programme, said probably, Ghanaians do not need any laws, and attributed the loss of lives through cholera to the fact that Ghanaians are dirty. On Ghana�s preparedness to keep the Ebola epidemic at bay, the GMA President said the government had put in measures to prevent the deadly disease, but they were not enough.
According to him, the government must step up efforts to stop the disease at its border entry and exit points. Dr. Opoku-Adusei, however, debunked assertions that Ebola is a spiritual disease, and urged Ghanaians to seek the right attention when they experience Ebola-like symptoms.
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